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Starbucks Lesson 187: Don't Ask Who I Voted For!

I proudly wore my "I voted" sticker all day yesterday. When I switched jackets later in the afternoon, I noticed it was losing it's ability to stick so I put a little piece of tape on the back of it so I could continue to sport it all night.

It's still stuck to the jacket I have on this morning, but I'd forgotten all about it's presence. At least, until the blond woman in front of me in a very long line at Starbucks interrupted my daydreams by saying, "Wow, you still have on your "I voted" sticker."

I am, as I noted yesterday, a very excited, proud voter so I was all smiles when I replied, "Oh, I guess I do! I wore this jacket yesterday."

She nodded her head and then snidely asked, "Who'd you go for? Obama?"

First of all, I'm sorry, but folks should know better than to flat out ask people who they voted for. That's just rude. I don't know you and you are not an exit poller. And even if you were, I'm not telling you who I voted for!

Second of all, I'm at Starbucks for crying out loud! I'm just there to get my chai and be out. And doesn't she know it's dangerous to talk to people at Starbucks in the morning? Most of them have not had their caffeine fix and they will snap at you in a heartbeat if you even look at them funny!

Finally, why was she assuming that I voted for Obama? Last time I checked, there are a whole gang of folks still running for the Presidency.

Let me make some "assumptions" back about her. I doubt she assumed this because she believes Obama's so darn awesome and she thinks everybody should vote for him. Nope, she was looking at my skin color and thinking that because it's similar to Barack Obama's that he automatically got my vote.

Who cares about issues or anything like that. If I'm black, I must just love Barack Obama because, well, he's black too. Black people don't care about anything else, right? We don't care about Iraq even though we've got sons, daughters and cousins over there fighting. We don't care about education even though our children disproportionately go to jacked up, failing schools. And we don't care about the economy either even though unemployment rates for black men are ridiculous. No, we're not thinking about any of that stuff. We just wanna see a black man in the White House so we can say we've arrived and Dr. King's dream has finally been realized.

Whatever.

How does she know I'm not one of the over 166,000 California idiots who voted for John Edwards even though he isn't even in the race anymore? And don't get me started on the folks who still voted for Kucinich! Hello! Vote for someone who's still actually running next time, m'kay?

Why be so quick to assume a black woman didn't vote for Hillary Clinton? Maya Angelou loves Hillary Clinton. Maybe I love Maya and therefore love Hillary by extension. And let's not forget about how Hillary was the first black First Lady since her husband was the first black President. Neither one have ever had the experience of trying to catch a cab while black, but that's just semantics, right?

If I'm not for Hillary, maybe I'm wearing John McCain t-shirts when I sleep at night. Maybe I've contributed hundreds of dollars to his campaign because I admire all he's tried to do for campaign finance reform.

And how come she thinks I'm not enamored with Mitt Romney? I mean, I might get sold on Mitt Romney just because I think his campaign press secretary, Kevin Madden, is pretty hot! I mean, Kevin's a nice Irish boy (score ten twenty points right there) and if votes were cast solely on how fly the press secretaries are, well, Mitt Romney beats the other campaigns hands down, no recount needed.

So I decided to mess with Miss Rude Starbucks Know-It-All a little bit.

"No, I didn't vote for Barack Obama," I replied. "Did you vote for him?"

Her face totally lit up and she began to gush. "You didn't vote for... Gosh, you voted for Hillary? I totally thought... Well, I did too! I'm so relieved she won California."

I nodded my head and smiled as she talked. She gave me a conspiratorial grin back as she continued. "It looked sort of scary there for a minute with Maria Shriver and Oprah both backing Barack."

And that's when I dropped my mischievous bomb on her. "Oh I didn't vote for Hillary Clinton. I voted for Ron Paul."

The look on her face was priceless! I thought her head was gonna spin around like she was Linda Blair in "The Exorcist"!

"Oh. Ron Paul. That's an interesting choice," was all she could say.

Yeah, real "interesting".

"Yes, I think he's a new hope for a new generation," I said. I thought my head was going to explode from holding both my anger and my laughter in, but I kept going. "Every time he talks. I just feel so inspired, moved to tears even."

She began to look down as I spoke.

I gave her the clincher. "I know he won't win, but I just love the man!"

She fumbled in her bag, grabbed her cell phone and said, "Oh sorry, I have a call." Then she turned away and began talking into her phone.

Hah hah! Was she faking a cell phone conversation just to get away from talking to yours truly, the black, female, Ron Paul supporter?

Regardless, I hope next time she'll think twice before assuming who voted for certain candidates and then asking people who they voted for.

It's just not polite and besides, she might run into crazy people like moi who will say equally off the wall things just to deal with the wackness being shoveled my way.

NYC/CR,Very easy on the eyes, isn't he? First time I saw him on TV, I was like, "Wowzer!"

Hammer,Well you know, every thing I've heard Ron Paul say in the debates has made a ton of sense to me. He strikes me as someone who at least tells the truth and isn't all over the place in his beliefs. It does strike me as very unfair that MSNBC and CNN have excluded him from debates recently. That's just wrong.

Stop making me laugh out loud! You're going to get me fired!!No, but seriously, you got her real good! Girlfriend totally had the fake call syndrome. I agree with Mes Deux Cents, you need a video camera!

I stay away from Starbuck's these days. I don't like to, but it a necessity. I like the maple oat scones too much. And the little vanilla ones. Do people only eat one of those, really? I guess those people are normal. I ain't.

LMAO! Right on, right on, like we used say during the days of sizzler skirts, six inch platform boots and dancing on "The Good Foot"! Liz, tell folks about it. Make no assumptions; folks might have to pick their face up off the floor, like homechick. Uh, oh...lapsing into the old Angela. I better stop because it's startin' to get good to me! :)

Here in Belfast, it's difficult to get any clear picture of what the different candidates' policies are and who would be the best president. The media focus is always on personalities and whether Hillary might burst into tears again. I'm always amazed that you all stay interested in the presidential hoo-ha for so long. Over here we have a three-week campaign for the general election and that's it. Even that seems over-long.

MDC,I've always secretly wanted to make a documentary. Or maybe my true destiny is to write a feature film centered around a cafe? ;)

We want instant gratification too much to be able to only send in absentee ballots the day of. If we did that, the pundits wouldn't be able to "call" an election ten seconds after the polls close.

Houseonahill.org,I wish her phone would've started ringing right when she began fake talking on it. Gosh, I can't even imagine how awesome that would've been. She probably thought I was a total nut and that's just so fantastic that she did.

The Joy,I sure did use it on purpose. I make myself laugh about it by being sarcastic in my post, but I was really annoyed by her question and her comments. It was just such a sign of an overhyped sense of superiority. Okay, I'm getting all heated again over it. What's the song say? "And you don't stop, 'cause it's 1-8-7..."

Jstele,Oh he's good! He knows his stuff, doesn't he? I think the interviewer got nicer after he said his dad is a pediatrician. To me, that's when the interviewer's tone changed. Oh and that Kevin Madden clip is so funny! At least it shows he doesn't take himself too seriously in the looks department! Thanks for sharing!

Anali,I think chai is one of the best inventions the human race has ever come up with. It's especially good with a shot of sugar free vanilla.

I had a couple of other conversations yesterday where folks danced around outright asking me. I know they were dying to know. I just wonder how many people I know voted, period.

Angela,They have these awesome cupcakes at the ones in LA now and it's really hard to resist them but I just tell myself that one cupcake equals dessert for like three days. I like some of their muffins but when you go on the website and read the calorie and fat counts, well, that ends my cravings! :) I just

NickTHREE WEEKS??? Wowzer, that's efficient! You have to go to the candidate's websites and download long PDFs with their stances on various issues. Or, some people I know have taken online quizzes to see which candidate they line up with. I am also tired of stories over who raised what $ and who cried. They don't discuss issues on the news. This race is too long. To think they've been campaigning for a year now and it's going to probably continue all the way up to the convention in August. Ugh!

Nerd Girl,I want to blame it on tabloid journalism where no question is off limits. Somehow it's TMZ's fault that folks just don't know when to not ask what they're dying to know!

Everyone from CNN and NY Times to political blogs to black blogs to women's blogs make the same assertions. It is insulting.

People should be voting for the candidate they think is best and focus less on making history. I as a black woman don't need to "pick a side." If Condoleeza Rice were running, I wouldn't vote for her so why on earth should I vote for Hillary because she's a woman or Obama because he's black? Are all women voting for Hillary because you have similar anatomy?

Brianna,I always wonder what kind of relaxer Al Sharpton uses. Is he a Mizani or a Dark & Lovely type of guy? Or is he still rocking the press-n-curl?

Gorgeous Black Woman,The media is assuming that. I had to shut my TV off last night when I was watching some show where they were talking about black voters in Georgia. The discussion was insinuating that if 80% of black Georgians went for Barack, it was was only because he's also black. I guess we're suppose to believe that the 20% who did not vote for him were the only ones that looked at issues instead of skin color? Yeah, I'm tired of it. I mean, six months ago he wasn't black enough!

Lola,Poor Ron Paul. Now that Romney's peaced out, I wonder what he's going to do. Will he quit as well?

I think folks try to "protest" vote but that never makes sense to me. If someone's not running, don't vote for them!

And another thought...Mr. Fly Press Secretary Kevin Madden is out of a job! :(

Jali,I've heard that if all the candidates are white males, then folks just vote according to identification with hair and eye color. And if that doesn't work, they line up according to shoe size.

Okay, I'll stop, but it just shows how ridiculous it is to say that folks vote for Barack only because he's black.

I can't believe that people have such a hard time minding their own business! There is so much un-festered anger and resentment going around that folks just can't control themselves, even while going about their simple day to day activities! No wonder America is so violent! I think we all need a hug.

OK, I'm back & that story was funny. I am thinking that you need to say out of Starbucks fro a while. Well maybe not because you trips there make for good blogging!

Damn you got profiled like a mutha fucka! I would have done the same as you but maybe been like hell no bitch, I voted for Mitt Romney, you know I's a Negro Mormon. That would have surely fucked her up & maybe caused that head to spin!

I am pretty upset that MI residents did not get a chance to vote for their Democratic choice this time around. And if Billary gets those delegates, she will have a whole bunch of after her ass.

DMB,There is a TON of anger in people these days! What happened in the USA today? Folks shooting up city council meetings in Missouri, a guy here in LA shot three people and a police officer... it's just crazy.

I'll give Starbucks girl the benefit of the doubt and guess that if she'd had her morning narcotic, she might have had more sense than to say the things she did.

Bygbaby,Yeah! I haven't been tagged in a minute! And oh wow, I cannot leave a comment that makes any kind of sense now! Let me just fall out on the floor and laugh...